How much is reasonable to spend on your kids at Christmas?

Thursday, 15 November 2012 | Admin

If you've been reading my blog for a while you'll know that I'm a *bit* of a bah-humbug when it comes to Christmas. In our house I have banned the 'C' word until 1st December, seriously. I don't want to hear about it until then, I don't want to start eating mince pies and I certainly don't want to be ordering my Christmas turkey, thank you.I enjoy the run up (i.e. the parties!) and, if you work in an office, you've basically got that Friday feeling for the whole of December. Lovely. But obviously pre-children...What I don't like is buying for the sake of buying. Where possible I prefer to spend a little bit of time in making a gift, which is great for the adults and I've got a great back catalogue of home-made christmas gift ideas if you fancy taking a look. More will be coming over weeks to come as I have a few new ideas up my sleeve.However there's no denying that this won't really work for children.When no2 son was asked what he wanted for Christmas, straight off the bat he said 'an ipad, a kindle Fire and an ipod touch'. Hmm. Don't think so.What is a reasonable amount to spend on your children? We've set a rough budget of £100 per child, but that includes their 'bigger' presents from us (New Scooters for no1 son and no1 daughter for example) and their Santa presents and stockings. We wrote a list on Sunday evening, went onto Amazon.co.uk and had it all ordered within 2 hours. Job done.On speaking to my Mum, she informed me that a lady that she works with is spending over £500 on just one item for her daughter. Who, to be fair is an only child, but even so...So how much do you think is reasonable to spend on your kids at Christmas? And how are you getting on with your shopping this year.....